User:GalGross~enwiki/Quotes

Collections of Sayings

• Terence Tao's collection of quotes.

C

• Campbell, Joseph
  • You see, when the world seems to be falling apart, stick to your own trajectory; hang onto your own ideals and find kindred spirits. That's the rule of life. And it's that life that survive the megadeath.

D

• Davies, W.H.
  • Leisure

E

• Erdős, Paul
  • Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education.

F

• Frye, Northrop
  • It takes a good deal of maturity to see that every field of knowledge is the centre of all knowledge, and that it doesn't matter so much what you learn when you learn it in a structure that can expand into other structures.

H

• Halmos, Paul
  • Don't just read it; fight it! Ask your own questions, look for your own examples, discover your own proofs. Is the hypothesis necessary? Is the converse true? What happens in the classical special case? What about the degenerate cases? Where does the proof use the hypothesis?
  • You are allowed to lie a little, but you must never mislead.
  • I love to do research, I want to do research, I have to do research, and I hate to sit down and begin to do research — I always try to put it off just as long as I can. ... .Isn't there something I can (must?) do first? Shouldn't I sharpen my pencils perhaps?
  • When a student comes and asks, "Should I become a mathematician?" the answer should be no. If you have to ask, you shouldn't even ask.

• Huxely, Thomas Henry
  • Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

• Hein, Piet
  • Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.

K

• Kipling, Rudyard
  • If—

L

• Lessing, Doris
  • No. I'm compulsive. And I deeply think that it has to be something very neurotic. And I'm not joking. It has to be. Because if I've finished a book, and this wonderful release, which I'm now feeling-- it's off, it's in a parcel, it's gone to a publisher. Bliss and happiness. I don't have to do anything. Nothing. I can just sit around. But, suddenly it starts, you see. This terrible feeling that I am just wasting my life, I'm useless, I'm no good. Now, it's a fact that if I spend a day busy as a little kitten, racing around. I do this, I do that. But I haven't written, so it's a wasted day, and I'm no good. How do you account for that nonsense?

M

• May, Rollo
  • To truly know and understand another's experiences, we must live them ourselves.

P

• Plutarch
  • Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.

R

• Roosevelt, Eleanor
  • One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
  • If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people.
  • One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
  • When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

• Russell, Bertrand
  • This seems plainly absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

S

• Shakespeare
  • No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en;
    In brief, sir, study what you most affect.